Fantasy Books Can Teach Readers About Acceptance

      As an elementary school teacher, many of the read aloud books that I use are picture books. These books, primarily used for practicing literacy skills and strategies, double as sources for character education. As Kathy Short, Carol Lynch-Brown, and Carl Tomlinson (2014) discuss, fantasy books provide the perfect opportunity for readers to learn life lessons through theme. "Theme unifies and illuminates a story, providing the "So what?" that allows a book to be more than just an enjoyable reading experience" (p. 125). During the short text unit as well as the character study unit we read a variety of books where lessons can be learned, specifically about acceptance. These books focus on accepting ourselves for who we are and others for who they are. I will explore this theme across three read aloud books that I use in my classroom.

     Paper Bag Princess, read above by the author Robert Munsch, tells the story of Princess Elizabeth who goes on a quest to save Prince Ronald from a fire breathing dragon so that he can become her husband. She outsmarts the dragon, losing her clothing along the way and being forced to wear a paper bag. Finally, she breaks into the cave and saves the prince, only to be rejected due to her lack of "princess" appearance. He neglects all of her hard work and focuses solely on how she looks at the time of his rescue. This book is considered fantasy due to the presence of a talking dragon and events that "are outside the realm of possibility" (p.124).
     All throughout the story Elizabeth had tunnel vision on saving Prince Ronald so that she could marry him and be a beautiful princess forever. In the process of making this dream a reality her castle and clothing were burned and she became physically disheveled due to her effort to save the prince. How shocking it was for her that all he could say when he saw her was "Elizabeth, you are a mess! You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess" (p.46). Instead of going home and crying, Elizabeth responds boldly, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince, but you are bum" (p.48). She accepts herself as a strong and capable person and accepts the prince for what he is, a true "bum." Clearly this book explores the theme of acceptance in a way that is easy for children to understand and empowers them to believe in themselves and who they are.

     Another book that explores the theme of acceptance is A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. The book tells the story of Camilla Cream who cares so much about what others think about her that she refuses to eat lima beans, something that she enjoys. She is so hell-bent on pleasing others that she starts to physically take on the form of whatever her classmates or doctors are discussing. Camilla starts turning colors and eventually develops an illness classified as the "stripes." These elements create a fantasy story since we know it "cannot happen in the real world" (p.124). This obsession with being someone she is not takes over her life, and her parents, who don't know what is causing these changes, work with Camilla and an old woman to find a cure.
      Camilla's struggle to accept herself is visible right from the onset of the book. "Today she was fretting even more than usual. It was the first day of school and she couldn't decide what to wear. There were so many people to impress!" (p. 1). She eventually discovers her case of the stripes and then is relived to not go to school because she would not want her classmates to see her in this form. When she says the pledge of allegiance her body turns to a flag pattern, and as pictures above, taking traditional medicine makes her look like a pill.
     After raising her parent's stress levels, with no doctor or therapist able to find a cure, Camilla is faced with an ultimatum of acceptance. If she eats lima beans, an old lady shares, she will be cured. "Camilla wanted a big, heaping plateful of lima beans more than just about anything, but she was still afraid to admit it" (p. 24). Finally she gives in and realizes getting back to being herself is better than avoiding a little laughter or mockery from her peers anyway. Camilla learns to accept herself and even enjoy lima beans. A line from the final page of the book sums up the theme perfectly, "Some of the kids at school said she was weird, but she didn't care a bit"(p.28).

     The final book that exposes readers to the theme of acceptance is Big Al by Andrew Clements. In the book Al is as friendly as can be, but the other fishes do not want to be with him because of the way he looks. He tried everything to disguise his appearance or entertain the other fish so they would befriend him, but nothing worked. The other fish simply found him to be scary and ugly. Finally a net captures many of the fish and Al uses his larger body and strong teeth to gnaw them free and the other fish learn just how great he is. This book would fall under animal fantasy because the fish "behave as human beings in that they experience emotions, talk, and have the ability to reason" (p.129).
     Unfortunately, it takes the fish finding themselves in a precarious situation to appreciate Al for the great and helpful fish that he is. Despite their constant disinterest and disrespect, after Al saves them from being caught the other fish feel some remorse about the fact that he was captured. When the fishermen throw him back into the water because of his looks the author alludes to the fact that Al's life changed for the better and he suddenly had a school of new friends. The book ends with the picture above and the following, "And now there is one huge, puffy, scary, fierce-looking fish in the sea who has more friends than anyone else: Big Al" (p.24). The other fish got over their initial impressions and began to accept and appreciate Al as a hero.

Clements, A. (1988). Big Al. Saxonville, MA: Picture Book Studio.

Lynch-Brown, C., Tomlinson, C., & Short, K. (2014). Essentials of children's literature. Boston: Pearson.

Munsch, R., & Martchenko, M. (2005). The paper bag princess 25th anniversary edition: The story behind the story. Toronto: Annick Press.

Shannon, D. (2006). A bad case of stripes. New York: Scholastic.

Chapter 2 and Interest Surveys

         I teach Language Arts to two fourth grade classes this year. That means that I have 40+ readers. They run the gamut from struggling readers, to below-grade level readers, enthusiastic readers, and truly resistant readers. Many of my resistant readers are struggling learners whether it be due to a diagnosed disability, lack of English language, or poor decoding skills, but the resistant readers I find to be the most challenging are those "who can read but chose not to." I selected a reader like this in my class named Danny* and I know that to help him and other readers like him I must "know books as well as [the] reader in order to find just the right books for them" (Short et al., 2014, p. 26).
       
      Through observation I have noticed that Danny has some trouble focusing and at times during independent reading can be found gesturing to his friends in order to make them laugh. After about 3 weeks of school he has only finished one book despite the fact that we have at least 20 minutes of independent reading time in class each day and students are asked to read for another 25 minutes each night at home. He has never expressed a dislike for reading, but it seems to him to be more of a chore than something he enjoys. His behaviors during reading made him a prime candidate in my mind to get to know as a reader through the use of an interest survey.

      What shocked me right off the bat is that without hesitation Danny circled "YES" for the first question which asked "Do you like to read?" When I asked him to elaborate he matter of fact-ly told me that he has no problem with reading. What he does not like is when he is asked to respond to his book whether it be in the form of a post-it or discussing his reading with a partner. We then began to work on the questions related to specific books and he kept coming back to the Goosebumps series by R.L Stein. He shared that he liked them because they could be "really intense, scary, and suspenseful." The classroom library has many Goosebumps books and Danny was reading one at the time of the survey.

     What I did not find surprising based on his behavior was Danny's response to one of the last questions on the survey. Danny wrote "I read best when it is quiet and I am alone with no distractions." It was great to see that Danny has the self-awareness to know that he gets easily distracted, but this worries me as an educator because the classroom is almost eerily quiet and if he is still distracted I need to be doing something more for him. Engaging him in the right type of book may be the first of many steps to supporting him as a reader. Here are some of my recommendations for Danny based on his interest survey and response to read aloud texts in the classroom:

Donbavand, T. (2008). Scream Street: Fang of the Vampire. Somerville: Massachusetts. Candlewick Press. 

Klise, K. (2010). Dying to Meet You. New York: New York. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Almond, D. (2001). Skellig. New York: New York. Laurel Leaf.

Birney, B. (2005). The World According to Humphrey. New York: New York. Penguin Young Readers Group.

Horowitz, Anthony. (2006). horowitz Horror: Stories You'll Wish You'd Never Read. New York: New York. Philomel Books.

Chapter 1: Learning About Story and Literature

While it may seem obvious, the word I would use to encompass this first chapter is literature. Too often as teachers I think we consider time students spend doing any reading to be beneficial but Kathy Short, Carol Lynch-Brown, and Carl Tomlinson (2014) clarify that literature is specifically written to "illuminate what it means to be human and make accessible the most fundamental experiences of life" (p. 4). Books are not solely written to teach about a specific topic such as Asia or Albert Einstein. Literature can have value in itself due to its ability to provide enjoyment, develop a reader's personal and cultural identity, awaken his/her imagination, and teach interpersonal skills such as empathy (p.7-8). Using literature appropriately in the classroom is one of the most powerful tools teachers have to shape students and build a foundation.

 

The merits of using literature in the classroom are explored extensively in this chapter and it is hard to argue against its use. However, many teachers may be wondering how best to make literature a part of the classroom. The phrase that describes how the authors respond to this inquiry is a balance of read alouds and independent reading. The authors pull from the study Becoming a Nation of Readers when they share that "the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children"(p.8). Listening to literature also has positive impact on language development and helps the nonreader begin the quest towards becoming a reader (p. 9). Kate DiCamillo, renowned children's author, explores these benefits and her personal experiences with books read aloud. 

The report also places equal importance on independent reading which is cited to result in the "greatest gains in vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension" (p.8). Students learn to love reading when they are given the choice choosing their books and an ability to discuss their independent reading with others. A study of elementary children by Leinhardt, Zigmond, and Cooley concluded that "the amount of time children spend reading silently in school is associated with their year-to-year gains in reading achievement" (p.9). Reading is also a complimentary skill to writing so by reading more texts independently students are hopefully absorbing skills and techniques to use in their own writing. Both formats of reading instruction are beneficial to students, and thus, especially during the elementary school years, it is critical that the classroom dedicates time to both. 

Finally, students emulate their teachers in all ways so it is important that teachers model being authentic readers in their own lives. As the authors say "Books do change lives for the better, but you need to be a reader to engage children as readers" (p. 11). Many studies show that reading levels dip as readers leave their formal schooling, especially reading for pleasure. As teachers we must genuinely commit ourselves to reading books outside of our classroom and graduate program. I personally have set a goal of one pleasure book per week. I find myself referencing my reading habits to my students as I teach mini lessons and using my own experiences as a reader to connect with them during conferences and small groups. It is much easier to sell readers on the value of reading if we are practicing what we preach.

Chapter 9: Family Involvement

        Often times the task of educating 20+ students seems to weigh heavy on the shoulder of teachers. There is so much curriculum to cover and so many standards of achievement that students are expected to reach. This chapter outlines some current challenges, existing programs, and possible goals for having families help in this enormous, yet extremely special and rewarding, process of educating today's students. Each year students spend approximately 180 days in the classroom. This means that nearly half of the year is spent outside of the school walls with people other than teachers. Schools need to tap into the family and the critical role it can have in ensuring a successful school tenure for all students.

       In the text it says that one particular program, Arizona At-Risk Pilot Project, analyzed parental involvement by looking at the family's supportiveness of their student and their active participation in the school. Families could be divided into four categories. Those who support their child and are actively involved int he school, those who do neither, and those who do one of the two. The families that are supportive of their children but not involved in the school may be doing so for a variety of reasons. They may feel uncomfortable in school setting, lack access to transportation or childcare, or have work during the time of school based programs. No matter what the reason, "absence from school events does not indicate a lack of family support for their children" (p.226).

       Unfortunately though, I say that the lack of involvement, due to a plethora of reasons can have a negative effect on a student's emotions. This year, in an effort to get families more involved in not only PTA sponsored events, I decided to invite the parents in for a few of our writing celebrations of our published writing. Parents were notified via permission slip and my teacher website about the celebrations and invited to come, bringing small children if they did not have childcare. For our persuasive writing unit students wrote speeches and were scheduled to deliver them to the class at a particular time slot to which their parents were invited. To my pleasant surprise, about 75% of the students in my classroom had either one or more family members in attendance. These students took even more pride in their work and were beaming to see a relative in the audience.

      For one student in my class, who has two educated parents who work full time, the outcome of this invitation and attempt to involve families had the opposite affect. Jenny* did a wonderful job presenting her speech about protecting endangered animals, but later that day seemed out of sorts. When I checked in with her privately to see if everything was alright she told me that she was upset that her parents weren't there for her speech and never came to anything at school like the other parents. Jenny's parents were extremely involved in her education, coming to nearly all evening events at school, so I immediately reassured Jenny that her parents were just as proud as those who came, but unfortunately it just didn't work with their schedules. I then had her deliver her speech again at recess and I recorded and sent it on to her parents explaining what had happened in school and apologizing for any negative effects inviting guests may have had on their daughter.

       The connection, or so what, between this vignette and the message of the chapter might not be clear. I am sharing this because it is obvious that we want to strive for having parents who are supportive and actively involved in schools, but this isn't always feasible. We as teachers need to find a way to make families partners in the education of their children without alienating certain students whose families are unable to be a part of a certain event. My goal in the coming year is to set up some type of video conferencing so that parents who are unable to physically attend, but have access to the internet might be able to still "attend" these special moments in their student's classroom. For a majority of the families in my mostly middle-class school district this is a possible solution, but with whatever I decide going forward I will consider the positive and negative consequences a program has on my students.

       Another type of parent that may have trouble being a part of the schooling of their child is those who lack an education or competence in the English language. To tackle this issue it says "schools must complement families in educating children." This might involve basic literacy education for families, preschool, family education, and parent and child activities (p. 229). With the ever increasing rigor of school curricula, it becomes increasingly challenging for parents with limited education or their own to support their son or daughter. This section of the chapter goes on to discuss how some parents do not even know about the programs that are available to them and where they can go to receives these often free services.

       I say that this problem is magnified at my school due to the somewhat small percentage of the population that live in poverty or lack a formal education. Since this subset of my school is in the minority, the discussion surrounding support service and the available program seemed minimal and highly needed. I had two particular students in my class this year where the primary language spoken at home is not English. Both students were struggling learners, reading below grade level, and for at least one of them the family wanted to help, but felt unable to do so. Often Jack's* mom would come in to the classroom and explain to me how she wants to help him at home, but she can't read English and her husband gets home late from work so Jack is frequently on his own to complete his work.

       With students expected to come to school "ready to learn" and to be supported throughout their time as a student, my school needs to do more to connect minority and low income families with services they might not even know are available. So what? How can I as a classroom teacher make this vision a reality? I personally plan to commit myself to learning more about what my community has to offer and finding ways to help connect families to these services. While the majority of an education still falls on the teacher, enlightening parents and making them a part of the process can greatly benefit the student.

* Names were changed.

Chapter 5 and 6

What Makes a School Special?

Meryl Becourtney

Readingville, New Jersey. For many years schools have invested a lot of money in becoming “special.” The truth is what sets an education apart and leads to reading and writing success is the classroom teacher and what happens within the four classroom walls. The classroom can be a special place without any special program. There is also not always a need for a specialist to remove students from the classroom. Instead, their support can be given right in the classroom. Administrators too, can work to make the school a special place for all students to learn.

            If making the classroom a special place is what is desired, then it can be done through supporting teachers to become that special factor.  As Allington and Cunningham share (2007), “Schools with success in teaching all children had enormously effective classroom instruction” (p. 104). There is no special formula or program that makes certain teachers able to teach a group of students to read and write. Instead of focusing on finding the special curricula that will help students reach success in literacy, there needs to be more energy and resources put in to developing the teacher. “For too long, efforts in improving school effectiveness have focused everywhere but on the classroom teacher” (p. 105) He or she can be the super hero if given the proper support and professional development. Unfortunately, “Classroom teachers’ expertise… has not been valued” or acknowledged for how special it can be, especially when considering the vast knowledge they have about their students (p.106).

            The value of specialists and coaches should not be overlooked, but moving forward these supports should be collaborative with the teacher in the regular classroom. “Classroom teachers need the opportunity to work and talk collaboratively about their work with their peers” (p. 107). One way this can be done is through “shared development of lesson plans” (p.111). If the lesson plans can be delivered to the target audience together, that is even better. Delivering support services in an in-class setting have been linked to equal or greater gains in achievement than pull out services (p.111-112). So rather than removing a particular student to give her a specialized program or service, work to meet her needs in the classroom.  What should be special is the collaboration and teamwork between the teacher and support staff in the building.

            In order to truly have special teachers, it is critical to have a supportive administration that works with the educators to provide them with the support they need to feel equipped to teach their students. Principals need to move “toward building-level decision making with decision-making teams that involve teachers and parents, not just administration” (p.129). Principals are the ones who must support the special teachers in their buildings so that they feel comfortable and backed to “take the lead and support each other” (p.130). Administrators, like teachers, need to be trained and educated in the field of literacy so that they can support the teachers in their building, because unfortunately too few teachers have strong literacy backgrounds (p.113).

            It might be hard to believe, but there is no magic spell, medicine, or formula to get kids to read and write. Each year a new batch of students will enter the classroom and the special educator in that room will determine, with support from administration and other staff members, how successful the year is. Let's throw away the notion that something external needs to be done and instead focus on cultivating the leaders we have in front of America's youth each and every day. 

Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter 1: The Schools We Have- What We Must Change

          Richard L. Allington and Patricia M. Cunningham present a lot of information in this opening chapter about the struggles that schools currently face and the need for a system wide overhaul. They share reflection on many of the factors that might contribute to the struggles readers and writers face. From there they move on to discussing some of the failed initiatives schools are using now to eradicate literacy problems and plans for future improvement including the policies that influence the chance for change. 
         While reading this chapter the word that kept appearing and reappearing both explicitly and implicitly was change. There is a paragraph very early in the chapter that illustrates this word and its importance beautifully. Allington and Cunningham (2007) share ideals about education paired with examples of the current state of public schools. For example, "We need schools that help children exceed their destiny-schools where all children are successful, not just the lucky ones who find schooling easy" (p. 2). For schools to be a place of success for all children, change is needed.
       A current policy in schools to deal with struggling readers and writers is retention. Students who are retained typically receive more of the same type of instruction and support and thus they become even older underachievers. The authors advocate for retention policies to be one of the first things to change in order to bring success to students. Rather then providing a repeat of the same instructional program, research suggests "that increasing the intensity of instruction works far better than either retention or social promotion alone" (p.10). Clearly, something needs to change. 
       My school deals with a lot of ELL students who may move to the country in the middle of the year and often struggle with reading and writing. Instead of the typical policy of retaining them, my school typically promotes the students and provides them with additional support in learning English to support their reading development. If the students repeated a grade again and received all of their instruction in the general education setting then it is unlikely that any success would be reached. 

       To make all of these changes possible the authors put a lot of control in the hands of the teachers and the power that they bring to the classroom. Unfortunately now many schools put more of their reform focus on factors outside of the teacher instead of "developing the instructional expertise of teachers" (p. 16).  This phrase, and its implications, has the power to change schools internally, without a need for significant funding or changes in policy. 
      Literacy teachers need to be provided with a rich library of leveled informational and narrative texts, as well as instruction in how to use these texts to teach students the skills and strategies they need to become readers. It is also critical that teachers have knowledge of students, how they learn best, and their prior knowledge both from the classroom and external experiences. Teachers who are equipped with resources and knowledge create classrooms where students can learn and become successful students. 
        My classroom is complete with a leveled library of resources for me to use during guided instruction and for the students to access when they are reading independently. Upon hiring I was also given support in assessing students' reading levels using running records and the various components of the workshop model which my school district utilizes. I know that without these resources and instructional support it would be a greater challenge to be an effective teacher. 

            Finally, a sentence that I believe sums up the authors’ message in this chapter is that schools need to support “children so that all students achieve levels of academic performance historically attained by only a few” (p.22). A problem with the current way our schools are often constructed is that there is a cluster of high achieving students and a larger group of students who under achieve throughout their careers as students. Something needs to change and teachers need to be trained and supported in a way that the outcome is more optimistic for the majority of students.

Chapter 2: The Stories of Schools Where All Children Become Readers and Writers

            This chapter profiles a specific low-income school that has undergone a reform effort to help meet the needs of struggling learners. From there the authors explore specific restructuring efforts that have taken place in elementary schools across the country to make access to strong literacy instruction the norm, not the exception. Finally they describe the common features of the reform efforts that are the most effective. All throughout the chapter is woven the idea of reform and making substantial changes.

            For each of the anecdotes shared there was always a program in place that was deemed to be ineffective and then something new was introduced with the goal of improving that program. The original program in one southeastern U.S. school relied heavily on a basal reader, reading groups, and a pullout remedial program. After observing other schools, the profiled district chose to adapt a few models to find something that was a “multimethod, multilevel instruction” (p.26). They combined self-selected independent reading, shared reading, working with words, and writing to help reach students in heterogeneous groupings with a classroom teacher and additional teacher floating between groups.

Not only did these changes result in a rise in students reading on grade level, but teachers also became the focus of professional development initiatives. The program was a reform that “largely resulted from reconsidering how to use the available funds to enhance classroom instruction to better benefit children” (p.29). The same resources and budget were used in a new way so that a different, and better serving, result was achieved.

Each of these reforms had a few features in common and one that I found to be particularly necessary is more time actually spent reading and writing. “Actual reading and writing activities” (p.44) should encompass a majority of the literacy block and in many schools this is not the case. Each of the reform models or programs puts an emphasis on supported and independent work in reading and writing. The authors, and highlighted programs, also advocated for infusing reading writing throughout the school day in content areas such as science and social studies. The Coalition of Essential Schools goes a step further and actually integrates the curriculum areas so there is no time explicitly designated for reading and writing but rather they are a part of the entire school day (p. 41).

In my classroom students answer open ended questions during science and social studies lessons. These integrated assignments require students to use their reading skills to chunk and synthesize a nonfiction text and then write about it in response to a prompt. Recently in a unit on pioneers students were asked to write about a struggle that a pioneer family might have faced and why they made the journey west anyway. This was an authentic writing experience that was embedded in curriculum.  

The authors introduce a variety of models that schools may choose to adopt, but they advocate their adoption with a specific caveat. “Unless the reform model is designed to enhance the instructional expertise of classroom teachers, there is little reason to expect the reform to produce substantive impacts on achievement over the longer term” (p.30). Throughout the process of reform it is critical that teachers are supported through professional development and other opportunities for continued learning in order to change classroom instructional practices. Each of the programs have very specific components and assessment tools, and teachers must be aware of these things in order to best support student learning. Many of the programs even provide specific trainings for teachers and support in implementing them.

Allington, R., & Cunningham, P. (2007). Schools that work: Where all children read and write (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

All about me...

My name is Meryl Becourtney and I am currently a third grade teacher in East Brunswick. I am finishing my third year teaching where I previously taught third and fourth grade resource room. Next year I will be moving to, what I hope is a "permanent" position, teaching Integrated Language Arts in fourth grade. I graduated from Boston University in 2012 with a dual certification in Elementary and Special Education.

My official teaching career began in Ecuador where I completed my elementary student teaching at Colegio Menor San Francisco de Quito in Quito, Ecuador. I lived with a host mom who spoke only Spanish, so I would consider myself conversational in Spanish. I was blessed to have the opportunity to teach in an American school while traveling to exciting places like the Galapagos Islands.

Here I am in 2011 standing in two hemispheres along the equator. My family spent a week in Ecuador during my semester abroad. My students loved seeing this real life example during our geography unit this year!

I am enrolled in the Reading Specialist program at NJCU. I look forward to eventually using my certification to either continue teaching literacy in a general elementary education setting or move into a coach or specialist role.

I am excited about this course because it is specifically geared to elementary school and how literacy fits into the elementary school curriculum. My previous classes at NJCU have covered the curriculum from Pre-K through 12, and while these courses were informative, I am hopeful that the content of this course will be applicable to my classroom.  I plan to use the research as an opportunity to pursue my interest in using partnerships and conferencing effectively during Reader's and Writer's Workshop.

I live on my own in Jersey City, but am close with my younger brother who just finished his junior year of college and my parents who live down the shore. I enjoy spending summer weekends at the beach.

I am a huge sports fan and follow most professional sports, but my true (and sometimes unrequited) love is the Mets.

My dad and I at opening weekend at Citi Field. Luckily, this was during the Mets 11 game win streak. 

Besides baseball one of my other hobbies is cooking. Even after a day of teaching and grad school I have been guilty of preparing a 3 course meal and then unfortunately having to wash multiple pots because I don't have a dishwasher. I actually hope to start a food blog this summer to showcase some recipes. Maybe this blogging will help me prepare :) 

Above is a batch of blueberry preserves I made last summer with local Jersey blueberries. 

The little bit of time I have left is spent running and doing other forms of fitness. I love group exercise and used to teach Zumba before I tore my ACL, doing Zumba.... 

Here is a picture of me crossing the finish line after my first half marathon. I met my personal goal of running the entire time and finishing in under 2:20. I am planning to run another one in the fall.